Hmm . . . Now What Was That Guy's Name?

It's Human Nature To Forget From Time To Time, But There Are Things You Can Do To Improve Your Memory.

October 30, 1999|By Health & Fitness News Service

You were just introduced to your client's board of directors a minute ago, but already you've forgotten their names. It happens to everyone. But if you think there's nothing you can do about it, think again.

Late last year, Swedish and U.S. scientists proved that adults can grow new brain cells, even in their 70s and beyond. They discovered the new cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain the controls memory and learning. This finding at least hints that you can sharpen your memory at any age. But, like other parts of the body, the brain needs its own set of exercises to stay in shape.

Simply gesturing while you speak can improve your brain's recall ability, according to a study by Donna Frick Horbury, a professor of psychology at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Have you ever gestured madly, trying to find an elusive word and suddenly had it pop into your head?

Robert Krauss, a psychology professor at Columbia University, can't say exactly how or why this happens, but he and other researchers speculate that, in forming memories, ``we encode in more than one modality.'' In other words, sights, sounds and smells can help fix a word or image in our mind. Horbury found that preventing subjects from gesturing in tip-of-the-tongue situations reduced their chances of recalling what they wanted to say. Krauss hasn't determined whether exaggerating gestures heightens recall, but he does advise against stifling them.

Recent discoveries about the way we process information may also help us in the quest for better memory. Human brains are ``ineffective as a recording and storing device,'' says Robert Bjork, a UCLA professor of psychology and memory expert. ``We're interpretive creatures.''

Basically, we link new facts to stuff we already know.

So what are the practical implications? Avoid passively soaking up information. If you're reading a book on how to negotiate, sum up the main points to a colleague later on.

When it comes to remembering names, you need to take a different approach. Names don't usually tie in with anything learned previously, and we often meet several people at once. Folks who excel at name recognition ``have built up a set of habits,'' Bjork says. Immediately after an introduction, they call the person by name. In conversation with others, they may refer back to her (``Jill here was telling me about her company's widgets.'') If the name is unusual, they may ask the person to spell it. They may also repeat the name to themselves.

In her books, Danielle Lapp, a memory-training specialist at Stanford University, suggests visualization. People with the best memories, she says, ``have an uncanny ability to visualize almost everything.'' They flash back to those images to reinforce them.

But even if you master memory boosting techniques, don't expect to recall everything, says Thomas Crook, a Scottsdale, Ariz., psychologist. A built-in filtering mechanism limits how much you can take in.

``So if you've just met the company president and someone else who is about to retire,'' Crook says, ``clearly it's more important to remember the president's name.''